This Week's London Deal Sheet
The Deal Sheet is a weekly compilation of Greater London and beyond's biggest leases, sales, financing deals, construction updates and personnel moves. Have news you’d like to submit? Email mark.faithfull@bisnow.com.
British Airways’ New Airways Pension Scheme and GIC have entered a joint venture to develop Tribeca King’s Cross, a life sciences development being delivered in conjunction with Reef Group.
Tribeca will feature laboratory workspace, retail, restaurants and 69 residential units across five buildings located next to Regent’s Canal.
The first phase of development of Tribeca King’s Cross is already underway and is expected to complete in November.
“Tribeca is set to be a fantastic new ecosystem, providing state-of-the-art, purpose-built laboratories, in response to the growing demand for lab and workspace at the heart of the talent cluster,” Reef Group chief executive Stewart Deering said in a release.
TRANSACTIONS
Great Portland Estates has completed the sale of 50 Finsbury Square, EC2, which, following verification, will be its first net-zero carbon development.
Construction of the 129K SF building completed in January, with leases to Inmarsat Global and various smaller retailers commencing shortly after. The sale to a wholly owned subsidiary of Wirtgen Invest Holding, a private German family office, has also now completed.
The headline price of £190M reflects a topped-up net initial yield of 3.85% and capital value of £1,471 per SF (£1,690 per SF on expiry of free rent).
The proceeds will be initially used to pay down the group’s revolving credit facility and will reduce the company’s loan-to-value ratio from 23.6% to 19.4% based on a pro forma September 2022 balance sheet.
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Infinium Logistics has completed the acquisition of an EV charging facility let to Amazon in Banbury for £28M from Paloma Capital. This is the second site secured for Infinium’s property investment platform — which it said is the world’s first dedicated EV fleet-charging real estate fund.
Close to the centre of Banbury and 1.7 miles from the M40 at Junction 11, the site sits on a principal arterial route between London and Birmingham. Arranged over 14.34 acres, the property comprises a 200K SF warehouse operated as a 588-space EV-ready fleet parking facility and let to Amazon, as well as a long-let Starbucks drive-thru.
Paloma Capital acquired the asset in 2018 for £5M and subsequently invested a further £9M in the project. The asset now produces an income of £1.5M per annum. CBRE advised Paloma Capital on the sale.
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Aparthotel Native Bankside has been sold by Create REIT to Jastar Capital for in excess of £40M.
The 75-unit, 5-year-old development will continue to be operated by Native Places under a new long-term management agreement.
Jastar Capital is a family-owned business specialising in active asset management and value-add opportunities in the hotels, real estate and private equity sectors. Savills advised Create REIT, and Adynaton advised Jastar Capital.
OCCUPIERS
Real estate investment, development and property manager Hines, on behalf of its Hines European Value Fund 2, has pre-leased 14.3K SF of office space across three floors at The Burlian in Mayfair, Hines’ mixed-use office and retail development.
The building was acquired by HEVF 2 in February 2020 and is designed by Orms Architects. Hines is undertaking a refurbishment and regeneration of the project on Dering Street, delivering 33K SF of retail and office accommodation.
The office space includes 118 cycle spaces, lockers, shower and changing facilities, and 2,300 SF of amenity space with seating and landscaped planters on the eighth-floor terrace. Redevelopment will result in a 75% retention of the former building structure, and Hines is targeting BREEAM Outstanding and SmartScore Platinum accreditations.
Hines was advised by Edward Charles & Partners and Knight Frank. Summit Property Advisors acted for the tenant.
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Commercial property investment manager Orchard Street Investment Management has completed two lettings at the newly refurbished Three Arlington Square in Bracknell, leasing just under 3,500 SF.
General Electric is taking circa 2K SF on a two-year lease across the fourth-floor suite. Recruitment consultancy Tiro Partners is taking 1,400 SF on a five-year lease, also on the fourth floor.
Occupiers including Ivanti, Bridgethorne and iHasco took almost 10K SF in the building last year. Vail Williams and Hanover Green acted as the joint letting agents for Orchard Street.
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Flexible workspace specialist x+why has launched a new space at Santander’s new HQ, Unity Place in Milton Keynes. The 60K SF workspace, which is expected to open in summer 2023, will cover the entire second level of the 500K SF BREEAM Excellent-rated building.
The space will include private offices, open-topped desk pods for startups, entrepreneurs and agile workers, and member benefits such as changing rooms with showers and break-out areas.
Designed by LOM, the ground floor of Santander Unity Place will be open to the public and include an urban food market, retail, a bakery, a convenience store, a restaurant with a brewery, a community hall and a 300-seat auditorium. In addition, Unity Place will have wellness studios, yoga and consultation spaces, a rooftop “wellness walk” and outdoor terrace seating for the seventh-floor restaurant bar.
INVESTMENT
Investment manager Nuveen Real Estate has launched its first dedicated pan-European diversified value-add strategy, having secured €180M in initial commitments.
A Danish institutional investor and Nuveen’s parent company, TIAA, committed circa €50M each while a further €75M was committed by Danish pension fund Sampension, taking the strategy over halfway toward its capital raise target of €300M.
The fund will invest across sectors and will source opportunities across Europe and the UK, initially focusing on urban logistics, housing and alternatives, Nuveen said.
It aims to provide a solution for institutional investors looking to capitalise on mispricing and repositioning opportunities in line with global megatrends and will seek to deploy capital over the next 12 to 18 months.
PEOPLE
Real estate credit investment manager Hilltop Credit Partners has appointed Claudiu Gheorghita as chief investment officer to build its loan book across the UK and expansion in Europe.
With more than a decade of experience in real estate principal finance for two major investment banks, Gheorghita has joined from Nomura’s Real Estate and Securitised Products division, where he spearheaded the value-add and opportunistic principal finance business, covering all asset classes across Europe.
Before Nomura, he was at Macquarie, responsible for originating and underwriting debt and equity real estate transactions across the UK and Europe.
